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SAN DIEGO — There are only so many ways human beings can describe an event that occupies fewer than three seconds of their lives, a fact that was put to the test repeatedly after Kyle Schwarber hit a 488-foot home run in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series on Tuesday night at Petco Park.

Schwarber’s sixth-inning solo homer — the longest in the 18-year history of Petco Park — in the Philadelphia Phillies‘ 2-0 win over the San Diego Padres provided a brief but stunning moment of energy on a night that was defined by a distinct lack of activity.

The combined totals: four hits, eight baserunners, 20 strikeouts. It had a couple of moments, but this was not a stirring advertisement for the game.

The Phillies won because two of the hits were solo homers — Bryce Harper‘s in the fourth, then Schwarber’s — and because Phillies starter Zack Wheeler ground the Padres lineup into a fine paste over seven innings of one-hit, 8-strikeout mastery.

Wheeler, who has allowed just three earned runs in 19 1/3 postseason innings this October, came out with a show of dominance in the first inning, putting together a string of 98 and 99 mph fastballs with late movement. Once that was implanted in the minds of the Padres hitters, he was free to use his breaking pitches to induce soft — or no — contact. He threw just 83 pitches and was removed after his velocity ticked down in his final inning, but he allowed just two baserunners, a walk to Juan Soto in the first and a single up the middle by Wil Myers in the fifth.

For the Padres, a 2-0 count constituted a rally.

“Seemed like the curveball was the equalizer for him,” Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins said. “Obviously it’s a good fastball always with him, but he threw a ton of good breaking balls to their guys, and you saw some awkward swings and weird swings.”

But it was Schwarber who captured the imagination, in a way only tape-measure homers seem capable of doing. He sent a Yu Darvish breaking ball into the second deck in right field, far above and beyond the playing surface and into a section of the ballpark nobody could remember being reached — even in batting practice. When the ball hit the bat, it sounded like a tree split in the batter’s box. The ball dissolved into the distance at 119.7 mph and pulled the air out of a raucous crowd. Harper’s stunned reaction in the dugout — eyes wide as basketballs, jaw slack — spoke for everyone.

The only semi-recent postseason comparison came in the 2002 World Series, when Barry Bonds hit a ball 485 feet off Angels reliever Troy Percival.

“It looked like somebody on the driving range,” Hoskins said. “It got so small so fast. One of those that you don’t really need to look at; you can just hear it.”

Darvish, who allowed three hits and struck out seven in seven innings, said of his former Cubs teammate: “Schwarb, he’s a friend of mine. Every time we meet we greet each other and all that, but next time I meet him, I might have to punch him.”

The homer was important, too, and went a long way toward erasing the Padres’ home-field advantage and giving Philadelphia a boost of confidence with co-ace Aaron Nola pitching in Game 2 o n Wednesday. The way Wheeler, Seranthony Dominguez and Jose Alvarado lasered through the Padres lineup, the extra run, in Hoskins’ words, “Felt like a lot more than one run.”

The person who seemed least impressed by the feat was Schwarber himself, who had two of the Phillies’ three hits to hoist his postseason average to .130. He left the batter’s box reasonably quickly and watched the ball’s flight path with only passing interest. He accurately described the homer as “just a point,” and stressed repeatedly that he would have accepted it had it barely cleared the wall.

In the endless search for the insider-y detail, he was asked to recount the reactions of his teammates when he returned to the dugout.

“A lot of people just looked at me weird,” he said, refusing to give the people what they want.

That left it to everyone else, and once the obligatory expressions of shock were relayed — “jaw-dropping,” according to outfielder Brandon Marsh — there wasn’t much else left to say. The moment was more visceral than anecdotal, at least for now. As Phillies outfielder Matt Vierling said, “When it happened, I kept trying to think about how I would describe it. I’ve just never seen anything like that. It’s hard, though, because it happened so quick; 120 miles an hour doesn’t give you much time to think.”

Harper was asked to describe Schwarber’s homer three or four different times in three or four different ways, and he finally said, “Yeah, it was just really far. That’s it — plain and simple. It was just really far.”

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Tide, Canes in, Irish out as Indiana tops CFP field

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2 hours ago

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December 7, 2025

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Tide, Canes in, Irish out as Indiana tops CFP field
Dec 7, 2025, 12:39 PM ET

After being on the outside looking in last year, Alabama and Miami can breathe a sigh of relief as the Crimson Tide and Hurricanes were the last at-large teams selected — ahead of Notre Dame — for the 12-team College Football Playoff field announced Sunday.

Undefeated Big Ten champion Indiana (13-0) earned the No. 1 seed, while two Group of 5 teams — American Conference champ Tulane (11-2) and Sun Belt victor James Madison (12-1) — were selected to the CFP field.

In addition to the Hoosiers, No. 2 seed Ohio State (12-1), No. 3 Georgia (12-1) and No. 4 Texas Tech (12-1) were awarded first-round byes, guaranteed to the four highest teams in the rankings.

The Fighting Irish (10-2) were the first team out as the committee took Alabama (10-3) and Miami (10-2) instead.

The Crimson Tide, which stayed at No. 9 after their 28-7 loss to Georgia in the SEC championship game, will visit No. 8 seed Oklahoma (10-2) in the first round.

Miami, which didn’t play Saturday after failing to advance to the ACC championship game, will visit No. 7 Texas A&M (11-1).

With Duke‘s win over Virginia (10-3), James Madison finished ahead of the Blue Devils (8-5) in the final CFP rankings — the committee takes the five highest-ranked conference champions — to get the No. 12 seed. The Dukes, who officially moved from the FCS to the FBS in 2022, will visit No. 5 seed Oregon (11-1) in the first round.

Tulane is the No. 11 seed and will face No. 6 Ole Miss (11-1) in a matchup of programs affected by coaching carousel chaos. The Rebels enter the playoff with a new head coach (Pete Golding) following Lane Kiffin’s exit to LSU, while the Green Wave will continue to be coached by Jon Sumrall, who will depart for Florida following the playoff.

The first-round games will be played Dec. 19 and Dec. 20 at campus sites of the higher-seeded teams. The quarterfinals (Dec. 31-Jan. 1; ESPN) and semifinals (Jan. 8-9; ESPN) follow at the traditional New Year’s Six bowl games, and a national champion will be crowned on Jan. 19 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Bowl season kicks off Dec. 13 at noon with the Cricket Celebration Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

In all, 36 bowl games are scheduled, in addition to the 11 games of the CFP, and 42 of those games will air on the ESPN/ABC family of networks.

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Sources: Fired Pry hired back by Va. Tech as DC

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December 7, 2025

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Sources: Fired Pry hired back by Va. Tech as DC

  • Adam RittenbergDec 7, 2025, 11:56 AM ET

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      College football reporter; joined ESPN in 2008. Graduate of Northwestern University.

Former Virginia Tech football coach Brent Pry, fired by the school in September, is set to return as the Hokies’ defensive coordinator under James Franklin, sources confirmed to ESPN on Sunday.

A highly unusual move in major college football, Pry will rejoin the team he led from 2022 until Sept. 14, when he was fired following an 0-3 start. Pry went 16-24 as Hokies coach with bowl appearances the past two years. Virginia Tech hired Franklin, who was fired as Penn State‘s coach in October, as its new coach Nov. 17.

Before Virginia Tech, Pry served as Franklin’s defensive coordinator at Penn State. He also worked as co-defensive coordinator under Franklin at Vanderbilt from 2011 to 2013.

Franklin became emotional when discussing Pry at his introductory news conference with Virginia Tech, noting that Pry’s father, Jim, had coached Franklin in college at East Stroudsburg.

“I’ve known Brent for over 30 years,” Franklin said. “… I’ve got a ton of respect for Brent and his family. I know he poured his heart and soul into this place. I know this place is better today because of Brent and the commitment that he made.”

CBS first reported Pry as a target for Franklin’s defensive coordinator role. Pry, 55, was a graduate assistant at Virginia Tech under Frank Beamer early in his career.

Virginia Tech owed Pry about $6 million at the time of his dismissal, which is subject to offset if he obtained another coaching job.

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Indiana gets first-ever No. 1 ranking in AP Top 25

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December 7, 2025

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Indiana gets first-ever No. 1 ranking in AP Top 25

  • Associated Press

Dec 7, 2025, 11:01 AM ET

Indiana is the No. 1 team in The Associated Press Top 25 college football poll for the first time after going through the regular season and Big Ten championship game 13-0, ending Ohio State‘s 14-week run atop the rankings.

The Hoosiers’ 13-10 win over the Buckeyes in Indianapolis on Saturday night made them the unanimous pick for No. 1 as they looked ahead to top seeding for their second straight appearance in the 12-team College Football Playoff.

Georgia, which beat Alabama 28-7 in the Southeastern Conference title game, moved up one spot to No. 2 for its highest ranking of the season. Ohio State, the defending national champion, slipped two spots to No. 3.

Indiana, which had the most losses in major college football history prior to Curt Cignetti’s arrival two years ago, had never been ranked higher than No. 2 before Sunday. That was the position the Hoosiers held for seven straight weeks before they rose to the top. They were 100 ballot points ahead of Georgia. The Bulldogs were just 12 points ahead of Ohio State.

Texas Tech, a 27-point winner over BYU in the Big 12 championship game, also has its highest ranking of the season after rising one rung to No. 4.

Oregon was No. 5 and followed by Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Notre Dame and Miami.

Miami moved up two spots and returned to the top 10 for the first time since mid-October. Alabama and BYU each dropped one spot, to Nos. 11 and 12.

Among Group of 5 teams, American Conference champion Tulane jumped four spots to No. 17 for its highest ranking in two years. Sun Belt Conference champion James Madison remained No. 19.

With the limited schedule of games, all teams that were in the Top 25 last week remained in the poll.

Virginia took the biggest fall after losing in overtime to Duke in the ACC championship game, going from No. 16 to No. 20.

The final AP Top 25 will be released Jan. 20, the day after the national championship game.

CONFERENCE CALL

SEC (8 ranked teams): 2, 6, 7, 8, 11, 13, 14, 25.

Big Ten (5): 1, 3, 5, 16, 18.

Big 12 (4): 4, 12, 15, 20.

ACC (3): 10, 21, 24.

American (3): 17, 22, 23.

Independent (1): 9.

Sun Belt (1): 19.

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